Parent Trap: Oft-Forgotten Wii U Features That Matter To Families

That cat is not impressed.

First thought too: THAT CAT!

But yeah, interesting point. Also Netflix is often used at my place. I don't have a Smart tv, I like to watch Netflix via the Wii U a lot!

I love my Wii U, but I see the challenge in convincing the kids to get one. Look at the marketing these days - it's all about the PS4 and XB1. If I know my buddies in the neighborhood or at school are getting PS4s for Xmas, then I'm going to want one too so we can trade games and play online. In this scenario, I would look at a Wii U purchase as my parents being cheap instead of getting me what I really want. I would resent the Wii U and never play it. I realize this is a pretty specific scenario, but this would be me if I was at the age these kids are.

three words: FREE ONLINE PLAY. A 30$ per month subscription may seem like small change to hardcore gamebro's but it quickly adds up to a substantial amount of money.

@Mk_II I'm pretty sure the PS4 and Xbox One subscription services retail for $60 for a year, with frequent sales. However I'll agree that that's still more than I'm willing to pay.

The Wii U is a good console and has some excellent Nintendo games. However, given the cost of the system itself, if a budget conscious family is more interested in the backwards compatibility aspect, wouldn't it logically be better to just keep their Wii? I think this is one problem Nintendo has faced with the Wii U and 3DS, how to convince people who are perfectly happy with their older devices - particularly families and "casual" gamers - that they need the upgrade.

Free Online Play isn't that big of a deal with Xbox and Sony is throwing 2-4 games at you a month (even if they are smaller or older titles). I would tell any struggling parent right now to invest in the Xbox One for a teen and just get a $60 (easily found cheaper) annual Gold membership.

The backwards compatibility would be more appealing if I didn't have to make use of the television and the horrible Wii motion controls for most games. However, I did pick up a lot of cheap games used for Wii when I first came back to Nintendo and there are still a few gems that are worthwhile: Xenoblade Chronicles, Metroid Prime Trilogy, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, and Animal Crossing (since there is no proper Wii U version) are the four that get the most play in my house.

You should send this article to Nintendo HQ.. I can't tell you how many WiiU systems I have sold to friends and family members on these principles. Until I informed them, some of them didn't know that the WiiU existed. With this information, it's a pretty easy sell...

Another important feature for families is the off-TV capability of the Gamepad... this can be huge when a child wants to play while mom/dad are watching something, or when mom/dad want to play while a kid is watching the TV.

"Video games by their nature are a fast moving hobby and we can lose sight of how much fun older games are."

We "gamers" can also lose sight about how casual gaming families don't move at the same pace. For instance, a game that is delayed isn't news because that game may not even be on their radar until it is out and their kids' friends are playing it and talking about it in school. With Infinity 3.0 and a new Skylanders, I think we will actually see a surprising amount of Wii U sales this holiday season. Yes they are on other systems, but those systems are seen as more expensive and oriented for older teens.

If only they'd hurry and put all the Wii virtual console games onto the Wii U's vc - I skipped the Wii and generally dislike switching modes to access Majora's Mask and a few others, but if the likes of all the Square games were added id be over the moon. And time to get Yoshi's Island up there, and why not put up Starfox 2, treats like that would go a long way in pleasing those that have stayed loyal. I may have went off on a tengent...

@GLA Yoshi's Island is up there, although it's the GBA version. Apparently there is some issue with emulating the SNES game.

If you are still a gaming parent and want too introduce gaming too your kids then you can't go wrong with the Wii U, its got games for all the family.

"Oft-Forgotten Wii U Features"

Like the video camera. When the Wii U was first announced and that camera was shown my first thought was my mom playing games like tic-tac-toe and checkers and hangman w/ her grandkids scattered all over the US. Or my sisters battling it out lon gdistance over Sports Resorts. But instead all that camera did was add cost to the GMAepad and it was never used.

And Wii U is supposed to be the console for families, so no COD may make some semblance of sense, but the console doesn't even get family board games like Hasbro which came out a few week sago. risk, Scrablle, Monoploy would be a great compilation to have with vid-chat online.

So the camera never gets used, a family console doesn't get family video games, the NX is probably coming out next year meaning the Wii U's best days may be behind it, and really even it's best days weren't all that great, and the console still costs $299. Meanwhile X1 and PS4 are going for $350 w/ games, and they get family games, and the toys-to-life games, and they probably each have 3 or 4 very good years ahead of them. X1 has Retro Replay for $30 for 30 games if you want "retro". And backwards compatibility coming soon.

I don't see how anyone in autumn 2015 can recommend to anyone else to purchase a Wii U for $299. If you want to play old Wii games, buy a Wii Mini for $99 w/ Mario Kart, then put the other $200 toward a PS4 or X1. HEre'sth Wii Mini link at Walmart:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Nintendo-Wii-Mini-Red-with-Mario-Kart/30913801

I've owned a Wii U for over 2 years, bought for $350 w/ a $50 GC at Target, and I don't regret it, but I'm not telling anybody to spend $300 on one in Nov 2015 w/ NX on the perhaps immediate horizon and other consoles out there w/ a wider variety of games. Who knows, NX may be $300 next year and be backward compatible w/ all the Wii U games.

So if you have a Wii U, enjoy it, and if you want to buy 1, buy it, but I wouldn't recommend to anybody else to buy one right now. I once talked a friend into buying a Sega Saturn instead of a Playstation. Great system, great games, but I never heard the end of it.

I also bought a Dreamcast right before they announced it was being discontinued. I don't have any regrets myself, really great system w/ some really great games, but I am glad I didn't talk anybody else into buying 1.

If you're an existing Wii family then this is absolutely an upgrade that makes sense. Not only are their budget titles in the eShop, but it's actually easy to browse - much more so than any other digital gaming shopfront I've seen.

I do think a price cut for xmas would do wonders: PSBONE is still a pricey alternative unless you're buying for a shut-in who doesn't care about expensive joy pads for limited local multiplayer. I picked up an additional second-hand controller for my PS3 and it's nearly as much as a new Remote Plus. As much as the idea of multiplayer Pac-Man Vs. is, I can't really justify shelling out for a third, let alone fourth controller for the one game in my collection that supports more than two players.

For families that are struggling, none of the current crop of consoles makes much sense. The new 32gb Apple TV would be a more sensible option in my mind: also has multiple free content channels, Netflix and iTunes movie/TV rentals in addition to games.

@rjejr I totally agree. Games like that would be great to have on the Wii U.

I think these kinds of features, along with free online play, are a huge, and missed, marketing opportunity for Nintendo. The convenience of letting your kid play games (or stream videos) on the Gamepad while you watch TV, the savings in using Wii games and accessories, and the variety and nostalgia on the eshop are too often overlooked. Add in free online play and its lower-than-the-others price tag, and the Wii U is definitely the best value of the current consoles. You may get "free" games with PS+ and Xbox Gold, but never having to pay a penny to get everything from your console is a major selling point, imo.

Sadly, off-screen play is the Wii U's top feature. So many features were left unused. We saw some potential of the uses with NintendoLand, Pikmin 3, and some party games, but sadly that was it. I think third party and indie developers used the features more than Nintendo even. It was like Nintendo put in all these features before they even knew how to use them. We didn't get any use out of the NFC until 2 years after the release, TVii was cancelled, the 2 gamepad support never happened, video/voice chat is not allowed in all the games they make (so why put it in?!), the camera was never used besides for making an avatar picture, and off-screen Wii play wasn't even enabled till over a year after the release. We just kept getting games that either didn't need the features or just plain didn't use them. Their line up should've consisted of games that could use them (i.e. Battalion Wars, the TV would be third person, and the gamepad could be top down RTS), but instead we got another super mario bros. that was exactly the same as the Wii version, a re-hash of Wii Sports that they thought would make people buy it again at a more expensive price, and many other games that you could just play with an old wii remote. To me Nintendo missed a big opportunity with the Wii U, and that was why it didn't sell. The HD graphics are awesome (see Pikmin 3), the free online is nice (Splatoon), and the off-screen play are the only good features.

I know this holiday season there are a bunch of bundles that make it a worthwhile purchase (Wii U + 2 games for less than $280), and I'm sure families don't look into the details as much as any of us gamers do, so I'm sure they will still have a good time with it with all the party games, mario games, and the amiibo festival coming out this week. If families were going to buy one console, I would suggest the Wii U. The other consoles don't have nearly as many family oriented games as Nintendo does. Local multiplayer is where it is at for families. Not playing Call of Duty in separate rooms online.

The killer feature in our family and the system seller is local multi-player. 8 player smash bros on a projector is incredible. Mario 3D world, 5 player Ray-man, Mario Kart. These are the games that make this system. There are loads of shortcomings, but the local multiplayer is incredible. I managed to save a huge amount of money because we already had 3 wii motes (the system we bought had another one with it), and the adapter meant that I could use my old gamecube controllers for smash brothers. Even at the very cheapest your looking at £40 for an additional controller for another systems, and if you want 4 player anything that's close to £120 just for the additional 3 controllers.
The main reason that we ended up getting our Wii U after our Xbox 360 failed (instead of just replacing it) was that we could barely find any content that was kid friendly, and just turning the system on often had horrifying images on the front page that scared our kids (some game with a brain wrapped in barbed wire), and we worked out that we primarily wanted it for netflix and not having to pay £60 a year would pay for the itself pretty quickly.
Big drawbacks, the lack of any proper outputs at the back. The lack of a dvd player (and not even the option to pay for an upgrade)

It's just like the Wii in many senses. "It's a family console" but it never had the comp disks or cheap game bundles (not counting console ones) that other systems had that would attractive families. Like someone posted above the Hasbro board game comp for PS4. Nothing like that would have ever come to the Wii or the WiiU and been as noticeable. But the WiiU still ended up being my main console even with a PS3 & 4. For one thing all my grown friends still enjoy playing these kinds of games with me, the backwards compatibility is great for me because I didn't end up getting to play all the Wii games I wanted and still bought some used games during recent times, I only had to buy 1 Pro controller, the rest are things I already had so that's nice that they didn't make me buy 100 new controllers. I imagine the NX will allow the WiiU Pro as a "backwards compatable" controller and possibly the gamepad as well. Lacking a DVD/BluRay has never effected me, at this point it feels like I need it even less that I may have with the Wii. The whole thing does what it's suppose to and has what I need. Sometimes I even look at my PS3&4 and think I don't actually need them because the WiiU takes care of like 90% of my gaming needs. It lacks a bit of naughtiness and violence at times that I want. I can ignore the lack of troves of third party for now.

personally out of the 3 the wii u has best value for:

Backwards compatibility with wii software
^same as above but for remotes and controllers
off-tv play
free online

@Uberchu I would argue against the free online, mainly because ps plus has more than paid for itself every year I have had it. In fact it's opened me up to new games that I would never have considered buying previously, this year we've had Rocket League for free which is one of the best Multilayer games I've ever seen on any console. Backwards compatibility has never appealed to me but I can see why others like it, the problem I have with the controllers is that they creep into the new games. Mainly when I had to buy two of the things to play Mario bros U with my stepson despite me having a gamepad and a pro controller, which frankly is a ridiculous situation.

@bonham2 Yep, got it. Not quite the same, but close enough.

Having to pay Sony a fee just to backup my PS3 save data has to be the biggest racket ever. That kind of control over the system I own puts the Wii U head and shoulders over the rest. And for the record, no, I'm not paying Sony any sub fee to do something that should be free out of the box. Hell you can't even recharge the bloody controllers with a standard USB phone charger, unlike the Wii U Pro Controller!

My 13 year old and his friends treat nintemdo like they would get cancer if they played it too long. They love to play smash, kart, splat etc...but then they go back to cod and minecraft and say wii u isn't cool enough and the graphics suck. Kids...
Fact...cool sells. Cool doesn't mean best, it just means cool. So I'm not saying a PS4 is better or worse, just that it's cooler. Cooler to pay to play online, cooler since it has more ports them new games. Again, kids...
My wii u has over 300 games thanks to backwards compatibility, and I look at it like a 10 year old console. Pc and Nintendo is all any gamer needs. But instead these watered down pcs called next gen consoles are cooler, therefore getting all the attention. My gaming pc is getting dated, it's 8 years old and has cost me about $1000 total to keep up to date. I can run witcher 3 just fine and it doesn't cost me a monthly service fee. It should run dark souls 3 and I'm content with my gaming for the next couple years...til nx.

@rjejr Of all the games for Ubisoft not to release on the Wii U, that one makes zero sense. At the same time, thanks for the reminder to pick up the Wii version dirt cheap used, I had forgotten about it. That was one of the few games my wife would sit down and play with me. King's Quest was the other head scratcher for me.

@Darknyht The thing about these "backwards compatibility" argument articles is that the game I've played the most on my Wii U is by far Xenoblade Chronicles at over 150. Splatoon is next at about 120 hours. And it's great that the Wii U has b/c, and I wish PS4 had b/c w/ my large PS2 game collection, but if you already have a Wii, which probably 98% of people who have a Wii U have had a Wii, then the Wii U is only giving you so much more for your extra $300. Keep playing your Wii, and consider spending that $300 on a PS4 or X1. VR is coming, Hololens is coming, those consoles still have interesting futures, the Wii U's future is NX. Save your money for that. If you've waited 3 years to buy a Wii U, 1 more year won't matter, and it may be $99 clearance by then.

@rjejr The Wii U is the only console in the house, hence why I will pick that particular game up for $6 used. For me backwards compatibility is great until you find out that the TV has to be on and turned to the Wii U to activate it (even in the Wii VC). About half of the time my Wii U is not hooked up to anything, and most of the rest of the time I am using Off-TV mode anyways.

There are days that I regret selling the 360 and switching back to the Wii U, and unfortunately they are growing as Microsoft grows their list of backwards compatible retail and arcade games. It honestly it only the Gamepad's Off-TV play and my pure love of the Nintendo franchises I grew up with that keeps it from being full buyer's remorse. I am right there with you in that outside of small children, I wouldn't recommend the Wii U to anyone right now.

still dont understand a gamer who doesnt own a wii u.
i always recommend them to people and this xmas is no different.
theres no way it isnt a value,
especially that Splatoon MK8 bundle.
GAME ON

The 4 main problems with Wii u:
1) too many huge gaps between retail releases - lack of 3rd party hurts!
2) something is really wrong when the original Wii still today has a much broader selection of classic vc games AND systems!!
I'm still waiting for this sight or maybe IGN to perhaps one day put them on the spot and ask what the hell exactly is the problem with this service cause Nintendo really blew it here.
3) online play is still not as seamless as ps4 or xone!! And lack of voice chat in good games like Splatoon is just plain nonsensical
4) like mentioned above most parents don't even know what the hell a Wii u is?!?

It's GARFIELD!

@rjejr Actually, come black friday and the holidays, XOne and PS4 are going for $300 with a game, so unless the Wii U goes down to $250, there's no real point in families even taking the dive into it.

Wii U won't go down in price. If it did go down in price, nintendo loses money (something that I doubt they'll want to do)...even though they can make up for it, they're still too greedy of a company to do so.

Also, with the NX already announced by nintendo themselves as 'coming', most kids won't even want the Wii U, as they don't want to put the money into a system that will be done within a years time.

omg that cat <3

@Darknyht Maybe you can trade in your Wii U for an X1?

OK, I like my Wii U too much to recommend that, but at least if you don't like where NX is heading next year you can buy an X1 and maybe get to play some of your old 360 games? I'm getting a PS4 next year - if nto sooner, sale prices and packages are killer - I suspect a long wait before NX, and then only if my teen kids want it, which I doubt.

@JLPick "Wii U won't go down in price."

Well Ninntod may not lower the price themselves - though I think they announce $279 in today's ND - but since you mentioned the other 2 $300 Black Friday sales, Wii U is $250 at Target BF and $279 at Gamestop. Both consoles come w/ Splatoon and SSBU.

The only problem I have w/ that is that if we are talking abut "Family" gaming I'm not sure every parent wants their kid online playing Spalton. Lots and lots of frustration in ranked modes in that game.

I probably wouldn't try to talk somebody out of buying that $250 bundle if they were set on it and their Wii died.

...That is an angry looking cat...

That cat is staring into your soul. My soul. Our souls.

IT KNOWS YOU. YOUR TRUE SELF.

...MEOW.

"A big deal is value and here the Wii U's full backward compatibility with both controllers and games of the Wii makes a huge difference. Being able to keep using those older Wii games, as well as opening the door to a massive (and cheap) second hand library of classic Nintendo titles can save a lot of money."

Wow, I'm impressed that there are still other people who care about backwards compatibility. There are so many gamers these days who have been convinced (brainwashed) into saying "who cares?" that it made me wonder if regular non gamers still realized the inherent value proposition of not having to buy everything all over again. It worked for the PS2, and it could have worked for the Wii U if Nintendo hadn't screwed up their explanations and forfeited their marketing.

@Darknyht Those so-called "free games" are inaccessible if the subscription stops, though. They're basically rentals that you can't choose. There are plenty of people who can't even afford a new computer, so there's no way that most of those people, who lack disposable cash, would sink yet more money into something that's not even tangible. Even free to play games on a PC or phone are a better value proposition for many economically struggling folks than those subscriptions. Nintendo needs to learn to capitalize on not needing a subscription with NX.

@rjejr And yet the Wii U may still be of interest to some of us even well after it's disappearance from the market, seeing as we don't know if the NX is going to offer backward compatibility with the Wii U, and besides all the negativity surrounding Nintendo's current console, it still offers some great titles of its own.

I also wouldn't trade in my old console for a new one, so compatibility with Wii titles isn't an issue for me, and my Wii is softmodded to act as an all-round retro-console (GBC, GBA, PC Engine, NES, SNES, Genesis, SegaCD, Amiga, MSX, Neo Geo Arcade, PSX, N64, GameCube and OpenBOR) and it took a LOT of effort to get all these emulators and games running almost perfectly, so I would never sell that anyway.

@TheRealThanos "as we don't know if the NX is going to offer backward compatibility with the Wii U"

Which is why I always try to qualify my "no Wii U recommendation" comment has an emphasis on "right now". If you've waited 3 years to buy 1 surely you can wait 1 more year until we find out about NX, no?

Or as Reggie said in the ND - spoiler I suppose if you haven't seen it yet, sorry - "If you want a Wii U, only buy it on Black Friday."

Serisouly, he spends all that time playing up the new game bundle, and then he says the right time to buy it is fighting tooth and nail through crowds of rabies infected soccer moms? Gee Reggie, thanks, I've been meaning to get dental work anyway. Remember all those comments Nintendo made after 3DS didn't do well and they said they learned from their mistakes? Apparently they didn't learn from their BIGGEST mistake, too high of a price. If you want to sell a poorly selling console, cut the price. Significantly.

So I still can't recommend it. No Pikman 4 announcement makes me think that's headed for NX. Zelda U "2016" makes me think that gets an NX port. And I'm not suggesting io anybody I know to buy a console if they are willing to shop on Black Friday, that's just ridiculous.

BTW - overall I thought the entire ND was good, all they had to do was slap a Powerpoint slide up there w/ $279 on it and it would have been a complete success. And no, $20 isn't that big of a deal, it's the acknowledgement that a 3 year old poorly selling console needs a price drop before it's 4th holiday on the market.

@rjejr "crowds of rabies infected soccer moms"
Really? Luckily, they don't have Black Fridays over here. And by the way: you didn't spoil anything since I've already seen the Direct.

@TheRealThanos But your missing all the fun.

http://blackfridaydeathcount.com/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2852585/Mayhem-Black-Friday-begins-Shoppers-clash-supermarkets-trying-grab-bargains-Boots-Game-Curry-s-PC-world-websites-crash-thousands-start-hunt-Christmas-deals.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/shopping-and-consumer-news/11261470/Chaos-and-violence-marrs-Black-Friday-across-country.html

@rjejr I've gotten 200 plus hours on MK8 and well over a hundred on SSB4. I think the Wii U is a great buy, especially the Splatoon and SSB4 bundle for $250.....

@rjejr suppose I could hop on a Ferry and go to the friendly people of the UK... (me being in Europe apparently made you primarily link to English sites as opposed to American, except for the victim counter)
Then again: I have other priorities and I'm not really in the mood to be part of a bunch of these kind of "individuals" fighting each other to be able to bag a bargain. People are strange. It sometimes makes me marvel at the fact that we have existed as long as we have as a species...

@rockodoodle "especially the Splatoon and SSB4 bundle for $250....."

And had Reggie actually announced a $249 bundle I might be in agreement w/ you. But you can click on all the links above in post #46 as my answer instead.

@TheRealThanos "It sometimes makes me marvel at the fact that we have existed as long as we have as a species... "

The machines need to keep us alive for our bodies natural energy.

@rjejr Wait, what? You mean to tell me that the dream I had the other night of waking up in a bowl of jelly with a tube stuck in my neck wasn't... a dream... ?
Better crawl out and start looking for Zion, then...

That whole "no minecraft" thing was a real killer for some friends of mine. These two elementary school-age girls are quite possibly the least likely people on the planet to take part in violent games, but they loved playing minecraft on our 360. What do the parents say? "Well if it's not on our Wii U, I guess we'll have to buy an Xbox One!" These girls have a premier piece of expensive hardcore gaming hardware... to play minecraft. I can't tell if they're the filthy casuals for playing exclusively Minecraft on an xbox one, or if I'm the filthy casual for playing minecraft on my 360...?